Yesterday, I wished that the Statement of Interest forms for the City of Madison elected officials and committee members were on line. And guess what, for the first time ever, they are! I didn’t know they finally got it done!
WHERE?
Here.
WHY?
Well, partially because I wrote this letter to the Ethics Board. As a result, at the last meeting the Ethics Board asked the City Attorney to ask the Clerk to get them on line. Partially, because they finally had the staff to do it, I think they were working on it before the request, but perhaps the additional request made it rise as a higher priority. If you’re interested in some of the issues I raise in my letter, you might want to attend the meeting on Tuesday.
WHY IT MATTERS?
Well, now you can see who or what interests committee members are representing when they vote on things like, say, the Edgewater, without going to the clerks office to find their forms that most people didn’t know existed. Now, they are all on line!
Here’s an example . . . what interests are represented on the Economic Development Committee (EDC)? Members of Committees can be found here. Member of the EDC and interests they might be representing are as follows:
Peng Her Employer: East Isthmus Neighborhood Planning Council.
Owes more than $10K to: Madison Development Corporation
Property: Owns rental property
Why should we care? Well, when the Economic Development Commission votes on things like the Biolink project and Madison Development Corporation is the one running the project, does Her feel compromised in his vote since he owes them money? Did he even disclose that to the committee? Should he have to?
Mark Clear
Employer: Interactive Media Services, he’s the CEO, in fact, he owns it.
Why should we care? If he owns the company, who else is he doing business with? Who are his customers? And what do they want from the city? What types of economic development does he want to put resources into? Do those resources benefit his customers? Or hurt his competitors?
Victoria S. Selkowe
Employer: Policy Director/Chief of Staff for Rep. Corey Mason
Why should we care? Is she representing her interests as a citizen of Madison, or those of her employer?
Julia Stone
Employer: BizWerks, self-employed, family owned
Owes more than $10K to (not including house): Anchor, Chase
Why should we care? Same questions as with Clear.
Alfred L. Zimmerman
Employer: DANISCO (yeah, you remember them, right?)
Why should we care? As the committee pushes the city towards focusing on BioAg economic development, how does he benefit? When setting priorities and working on the economic development plan, does he make decisions that will benefit the BioAg Gateway?
Gabriel A. Sanchez
Employer: First Weber
Other Bodies: Board Member of Chamber of Commerce Minority Business Advisory Council
Why should we care? Does he represent the Chamber of Commerce? Will he make motions to further their agenda? Or does he act in the interest of his employer?
Joseph W. Boucher
Employer: Neider & Boucher, Shareholder Attorney
Why should we care? See same questions as Clear.
Douglas S. Nelson
Employer: President M&I Bank
Other Bodies he serves on: Future Madison Inc, Kelab, Inc., M&I Bank, Chamber of Commerce, United Way
Why should we care? Well, he’s the chair of the committee. How many of the decisions being made here, or even decisions about what make it on the agenda are really the interests of M&I Bank or the Chamber of Commerce? How many Chamber Board Members do they need on this committee?
Edward G. Clarke
Employer: MATC
Other Bodies he serves on: TEC, Workforce Development Board, THRIVE
Why should we care? First of all, he failed to disclose his work with DMI, um, he’s the Vice Chair. But again, is he representing THRIVE or MATC in his decisions? MATC is even more interesting now given the support for the Edgewater and how that TIF might impact MATC.
Matthew C. Younkle
Employer: Y Innovation, LLC, Presdent
Also has interests in: BTAP, W VII Investment Partners, Laminar Technologies and a long list of stocks.
Why should we care? I have no idea who all these companies are. The list contains mostly initials and that is not very meaningful? How much are his decisions based on his investments in these businesses?
Chris Schmidt
Employer: UW-Madison
Why should we care? Well, when they talk about University Research Park being a priority, does he have any interests there? Is there pressure from work to vote a certain way?
Joseph R. Clausius
Employer: City of Madison
Why should we care? Well, I think he failed to disclose that he works somewhere else . . . . at least the paper disclosed where he works as of May 2010 and I’ve always known him to work there and there isn’t an amended statement.
I’m kind of picking on this committee, there are many other more interesting conflicts throughout the city, and if I have time, I’ll try to point them out. I don’t really think all the questions that I asked are of equal concerns. Some I raised so you’d think about them. Others, well, I’m kind of surprised at some failures to disclose. But the main point is now, you all can look. And point out those conflicts. And maybe committee members will now be quicker to point out any conflicts that they might have, to avoid looking like they are doing something shady.
Or, maybe everyone will just forget . . . please don’t let them, the information is now more available, so use it!
